CPS took my kids. What are my rights in TX.

Asked Sep 26, 2007, 06:56 PM
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4 Answers

My Wife's brother and his wife are foster parents. We were preparing for a family move as I had taken a job in another town. My 14 year old daugter refused to move. She said she wanted to stay with her aunt and uncl. As I had taken a job in the other town and had been living there for 6 weeks, I told her that this was not an option, that she would move with us. The very next day, I had a case against me for "sexual abuse" of my 14 year old daugther that her aunt, (the foster mom) helped her file. The kids were taken away from me and my wife and given to (you guessed it) The aunt and uncle. I believe that her relationship with the caseworker through her foster parenting has played a huge part in this. My wife has been given 1 hour supervised visits once a week, but I have been told that I cannot see the kids at all. CPS has turned it over to the authorities for a criminal investigation, but I have not heard from the authorities and it has been almost a month. I have not been able to come up with the money for an attorney. My wife is in one town and I am in another. We are both living with relatives as we sold our house to move and have not been able too. (We made no profit from the house, so we couldn't use that to fund a lawyer) My wife and I are struggling to stay together, but we have been separated for over 2 months now, and the stress is tearing us apart.

What I need to know is
1. Why can't I have supervised visits with my kids.
2. How could CPS take custody of my kids without a court order.
3. What are my rights.

Well, in the Great State of Texas, and it is, isn't it? Texas' philosophy is 1) do what's best for the community and 2) what's best for the child.
There will have to be an investigation into the child's claims to ascertain the validity - until then no sane person would be sending a child back to a family with an accused sex offender/molester/whathaveyou as the press would have a field day and all the weird and strange groups would come out of the woodwork, looking for yer balls and the most quick way to separate you and them (yer balls, not the weird and strange groups) and maybe docking yore tail behind yore ears...
So you got to be patient as you just can't hurry love and you certainly can't hurry CPS. Meantime your daughter will be supervised and under the jurisdiction of the State so they'll be smoking out what's going on with her so it won't be a big picnic for her either.

Sometimes you just got to outlast the situation and blaming and shaming aren't going to work to your best interest. Practice being the model parent you want CPS to believe you are so that you do become that. Sorry this is tearing your family up - sometimes these are the very events that bring a family together and that's the way you should be working in.

I feel for you. My X-wife just filed the same ciaim, but I guess washingtons states laws must be very dfferent from Texas. They conducted an investigation within 24 hours and dimissed the whole thing. For them to keep you child from you, then there must be real evidence against you. However, a number of years ago I took a class while trying to adopt, and in that class they stated that CPS works have tremendous amount of power. It is completely up to the case worker as to how it is handled. They have the power to remove any child no matter the circustances, even if false, if they feel as though the child is in danger.

Since your daughter is 14, her making the statement, even if falsely, has a lot of creditability. You are going to have a long hard battle ahead of you. My X did it because she found out that I as having a new baby, with my new wife. If you can prove that you daughter is doing it just to stay with her aunt, you might be able to fight it. If not... good luck

You can't afford NOT to have an attorney. Without one you are at the mercy of people who know how to manipulate the system (like your in-laws). You need to start interviewing lawyers. Assuming there is no substance to the claim and its just your daughter not wanting to move, when CPS investigates, they will hopefully see that.

The thing is you need to get them off their bottoms. The best defense is a good offense. Get an attorney and file suit against your in-laws for undue influence, against CPS for false accusation, lack of due process, and whatever else your attorney can think of. That's why you NEED an attorney. If what you told us is the truth a decent attorney will jump at this on a contingency basis, because the govt will offer to settle your suit.

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